Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Association, at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 15. Alex Wong/Getty Images

April 9, 2013

ADVERTISEMENT

There's no denying it: The National Rifle Association has won — again. Even though more than 3,000 Americans have died via gun violence since 20 children and six adults were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary in December, the NRA has somehow managed to triumph. The victims' families and gun-control advocates have lost. Forget an assault weapons ban — or any other serious gun regulation. It's not happening.

Writes The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky: "I have never seen a situation in which a Congress, terrified of a particular lobby, has behaved in such open contempt of American public opinion as it's doing now on guns."

The brutal truth is that the 20 little kids who perished in Newtown, Conn., in a terrifying massacre involving 154 rounds fired in 5 minutes were NOT enough to significantly move the dial on gun control. These kids are now (more) collateral damage in the decades-long political gun-control ballet involving lobbying money and the way American politics truly functions. Poll numbers alone won't enact change.

Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein writes: "See, the problem here is equating '90 percent in the polls'" — polls show that nine in 10 Americans support universal background checks — "with 'calling for change.' Sure, 90 percent of citizens or registered voters... will answer in the affirmative if they're asked about this policy. But that's not all the same as 'calling for change.'... Action works. 'Public opinion' is barely real.... At best, public opinion as such is passive. And in politics, passive doesn't get results."

We know the pattern: (1) a massacre; (2) initial shock, media saturation, and noble-sounding rhetoric from politicians about change; (3) statements of regret or lawyerly type statements with loopholes from the gun lobby; (4) mobilization of the NRA and ideological echo chambers to go on the attack and wield political clout.

President Obama recently expressed dismay over these sad truths, and reminded America about the first-graders butchered in Newtown: "The entire country was shocked, and the entire country pledged we would do something about it and that this time would be different," he declared. "Shame on us if we've forgotten. I haven't forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we've forgotten."

Shame on us, indeed. Because in American power politics — as the long battle for gun control stymied by big money, cowardice, and lack of organized-for-action public outrage shows — there is no change. Just more and more cases of collateral damage.